The Prince's Mate

Golden tears

Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she was already dead, even with everything that had happened she still hadn’t found any sense in anything... Castle, wedding, a prince and maids, Cecelia was confused out of her mind, but these people seemed so serious that she had no choice but to take them seriously as the guard continued to drag her up the winding stairway, and after he’d threatened her with what was to come he hadn’t made another sound, all she could hear outside of the footsteps she made as well as those before and behind her was a ringing silence that made her want to jump off the side of the staircase, but even that would have made no difference since the staircase was wound up like a tower with walls on one side and a pillar on the other; there was no escape.

And in truth, she was still thinking of her son so she didn’t even have escaping on her mind yet, at least not until she was sure he was safe. “I swear if you do anything to my son I’ll-“

“You will what?” Lucas responded, cutting her sentence off. “Be silent woman, it appears you truly have no sense of the danger you are in-“

“If you hurt my child I’ll plant my foot up your ass you bastard.” Cecelia glared back at him, and then at Adel behind him who wore a small smile after she’d threatened to place her foot in an undignified manner where the Prince didn’t let the sun shine, but that smile lasted only a fraction of a second as she glared back at Cecelia who had casually called royalty a bastard, to her, the woman was both amusing and stupid at the same time as she kept digging her own grave deeper with every sentence that came out of her mouth. “Seriously!” Cecelia snapped at them as she tried to get her hands free from the guard, but she found herself unable to do a thing against his strength.

“Please be calm already and accept this for what it is, you are being unnecessarily rude and stupid, woman,” The guard tugged at her binds causing her to double step and lose her footing. She indeed went silent, but that was only for a second before Cecelia suddenly started screaming and flailing her legs even as she was continuously dragged upward, because why would she listen to the calming words of a man who’d told her she was going to be tortured and then killed?

She struggled for the entire duration of their long thirty-minute walk to the top; a time which could have been a mere five minutes if she had behaved herself, but she wasn’t going to give her life away so willingly to something she had no idea about. “Finally.” The man sighed as he reached a large bronze door that seemed even bigger than the passage of the staircase itself as it began to open, at that point nobody took another step forward, and Cecelia felt her insides seize up when she was greeted with the murky smell of iron accompanied by a bright green light that took her vision away for several seconds.

In that period of blindness, she was released of her shackles and pushed into the room before her where she found herself unable to move a muscle once she stopped walking, and while her sight readjusted she was hearing and seeing all manner of images, things that didn’t make any sense at all, creatures she never knew existed, and people she had no idea about, mostly though she relived her entire life, and it all happened in the flash of a second. “What the hell is it this time?” She asked aloud but realized that although she had mouthed the words not a single sound escaped her lips. She was finding it stranger and stranger as time passed, and when the light finally left her eyes she realized she was in the presence of an otherwise dark room full of people surrounding her in a balcony of sorts that went right around.

“You said your name was Cecelia Holland, correct?” She heard an old man’s voice, and it was much less of a question and more of an affirmation because of his tone and the fact that he didn’t wait for her to respond before he asked another. “What is your purpose here in Morhaven?” He asked, she couldn’t even see him or tell where his voice was coming from because of how much it bounced around, but she found her lips sealed as if someone had locked them up with super glue, so she began to panic. “Unless it is the truth directed to the questions I ask you, your mouth will remain sealed, that is the magic at work here, resistance is futile.” He spoke a third time, and she fell still, that was the second time she had heard someone say magic, and it was starting to creep her out, but at the same time she really was unable to speak a single word, so she decided to test what she’d heard.

“I have no purpose here in Morhaven, I do not even know of any such place on earth,” Cecelia responded as smoothly as she’d usually speak, and she was so shocked by it that she was on the verge of cussing when her lips suddenly shut again and she was once more unable to speak.

“Where is earth, I have lived for well over two hundred years and travelled every corner of Atla, and I have never heard tell of such a place called... Earth before.” The man responded after a minute of silence as he searched his own memories and gathered his thoughts.

“I have no idea what Atla means unless you’re talking about the city of Atlantis beneath the ocean, but that is a child’s bedtime story and has no proof of existence at all...” Cecelia raised her head and looked directly at the man who had been speaking to her, she didn’t know how she knew or even when she’d realized, but the more time she spent in there the better she could see, and the better she could hear as well, a room so large and dark that it looked like death to her was suddenly a very bright and clear place, and the light before that had blinded her didn’t even affect her any more, she could see everything and everyone, including her son who was set in the corner with a blindfold over his eyes and his hands bound behind him, but even if she wanted to move or say anything she had to wait for a question, and she was still bound in place.

Adel; the maid who had asked her questions down in the cells was also a part of the observers, as well as the Prince who she’d met down there, but she didn’t see the guard, so she assumed that the people watching and listening to her were all very important individuals in one respect or the other.

The man questioning her was dressed in golden robes with silver flower patterns in the layout of vines that trailed across it, and in his hand was a cane that he leaned on, his visible hand and face were so wrinkled she thought for a second he was some kind of medical patient with a rare disease, but he had said that he was well over two hundred years old, and even if she didn’t want to admit it, nothing made sense so she was seeing how far she would go before the guard’s threat came true.

“What-“

“If you leave my child in my arms I will respond without you needing to force the truth from my lips... Please.” She spoke quickly before his question was completed, and it caused the entire hall full of people to break into subtle murmurs as the child in the corner started to rustle about restlessly.

The old man in gold looked at the boy, and then raised his gaze toward a certain individual above on the balcony, someone who by merely glancing at him Cecelia felt like she’d be killed for looking away, it caused her eyes to go wide as she peeled her gaze away and back to Dylan in the corner. The man she’d looked at before nodded to the old man asking questions and he held his hand toward the boy, with a whisper and a wave of his wrinkled fingers the blindfolds unravelled and Dylan jumped to his feet while the binds holding him fell off, and he immediately ran toward Cecelia and grabbed on to her, but she was unable to return the hug because she was still bound by the unseen force that held her in place, and it caused tears to fall from her eyes.

“Are you some kind of royalty or nobility?” The old man asked her, and her eyes slowly travelled across her son before resting on him.

“No.” She responded slowly. “I am not.”

“Then were you perhaps raised by a wealthy family?” He asked her.

“Again, no.” She responded as he walked around her slowly looking at every part of her exposed self and shaking his head.

“Then explain to me how you have kept yourself so well, even from the attack a day ago, and being held captive in a cell, you are still clean and evidently well taken care of, perhaps you were raised as a servant girl to nobility or wealth?” He asked her out of pure curiosity, earning him a grumble as someone above cleared their throat for him to ask actual questions.

“No, I am none of the above,” Cecelia responded calmly as she felt the warmth of her son against her legs and released a long breath of relief that it was indeed him after looking down his shirt and seeing a birthmark on his collar.

“Then what are you?” The man asked, and she felt a pain run through her head as she tried to hold the truth in.

“I am not a ‘what’ sir, I am a ‘who’... My name is Cecelia Holland, I’m from Red Cross, Cambridge.” She replied with a snarky undertone, causing the man to scowl as he turned his back to gather his thoughts again, the child had already said this, her name, her supposed country, province and street name, as well as her own name and even her parents' names.

“What are you doing here in Morhaven?” He asked her, and she sighed as her mouth opened again.

“I don’t know, I don’t know where Morhaven is, or how I got here, I should be in Cambridge... Not wherever this place is.” She replied and then huffed through her nose as her lips slowly sealed again.

“Then how did you end up in the throne room you liar!?” Someone from the stands shouted down at her and she flinched at the tone and hostility coming from them, this particular person was behind her, so she couldn’t turn her head to see who it was, and it made her even more nervous than she already was. “How did you end up here!” They screamed again.

“I don’t know, the last thing I remember was crashing off a bridge!” Cecelia snapped out of fright as Dylan held her tightly. “That’s all I know, we hit the water, and then the next time I woke up I was in chains!” She cried out, “I can’t lie, I physically cannot tell a single lie right now so why are you still doubting my words!?”

“I vote we kill her and the boy.” Another person spoke up. “It is possible she could be a spy or assassin brainwashed with a trigger set to unleash upon us at any moment, it is too convenient that some stranger appears on the same day of the wedding, sure she was an hour late but she managed to destroy the hall of a sacred wedding, that alone is a crime against the kingdom as had she been a minute earlier the Prince would have been killed by her metal chariot, she could also be a witch in disguise, or some demon come from below to exact the deeds of darkness upon the heads of our fair kingdom!”

“Indeed.” Another man spoke after the first. “She has dark hair like the women of our enemy kingdom Jakhar, and her eyes are bright and blue like that of a white tiger, and her skin pale as well, she might indeed be some kind of witch or demon, the boy also has the same as her, we should kill them both and send them back to wherever they have come from as a warning that Morhaven is not to be trifled with, or better, we string them up in the capital as an example for all to see!”

Hearing all this Cecelia broke down crying, she couldn’t move but she was overwhelmed at the fact that she was being looked upon and considered to be killed in such a brutal way, her eyes shook in place of her body, and her breath came out hitched as she tried her hardest to look strong before her son, but she couldn’t hold it and closed her eyes as the tears began to flow, the guard was right after all, torture and killed suddenly seemed like the only way she was going to get out of wherever she’d found herself in, but amidst her crying, she realized that there was an abundance of gasps, and when she opened her eyes again she was greeted with a steady golden glow rising from her face, her tears instead of going down they were going upward, and they glowed, it came as such a shock that she couldn’t keep herself from passing out as the stress reached her head, but not before she heard someone whisper.

“The legend is true...”